Heating Up for NCAA Prelims

As I sat and watched the upcoming weather report for Memorial Day weekend, the meteorologists kept commenting how the East Coast will have warm-to-hot temperatures as the Northeast will be climbing above 80 degrees for the entire weekend. This is also valid for the Jacksonville, Fla. area – the Weather Channel is predicting highs in the mid-80s from Thursday to Saturday, with increasing clouds and chances of precipitation as the week progresses.

Theaction will begin at noon on Thursday at the Hodges Stadium at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Each event has a slightly different procedure in qualification for later rounds, as we break it down below:

The sprints (up to 800m) and both hurdle events will have 6 heats in the first rounds over the course of Day 1 and Day 2 (see schedules for exact dates). The top 3 in each heat and the next 9 fastest qualify for the quarterfinals, which will be held on Days 2 and 3. The quarterfinals will have 3 heats, where the top 3 and next 3 fastest get to move on to the semifinals at Oregon.

The 1,500m trials will have 4 heats on Day 1. The top 5 and the next 4 fastest qualify for the quarterfinals on Day 3. In the 2 heat quarterfinal round, the top 5 and next 2 fastest get to move on to the semifinals at Oregon.

The steeplechase and relays will just have one round. There will be 3 heats, where the top 3 and next 3 fastest qualify for the semifinals at Oregon. The steeplechase will be held on Day 2 while the relays will be run on Day 3.

The 5,000m heats on Day 3 will act as the National semifinal. There will be 2 heats, where the top 5 and next 2 fastest qualify for the finals at Oregon.

The single 10,000m heat on Day 1 will act as the National semifinal. The top 12 will qualify for the finals at Oregon.

The vertical jumps will follow the five-alive format (details on the start listing) until the top 12 competitors remain. These top 12 will have qualified for the finals at Oregon.

The horizontal jumps and throwing events will each have 4 flights that make up the trial round. Each athlete will only get 3 attempts, and the top 12 performances after those 3 attempts will qualify for the semifinals at Oregon.

So who will be competing when? Well, we broke down the schedule and the start lists to share that information – check it out below. There are some updates on who will be competing since the declaration lists were released last week, so we included those changes in this schedule breakdown (for example: the women’s 10km #1 seed Courtney Smith of Harvard will no longer be competing). We’ll provide daily recaps of the competition, but you can follow the meet as it progresses through its Live Results website. Good luck to all of our student-athletes down in Florida.